Posted by paulmilbank under
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This book is a really interesting read and one which bears much fruit when read.
It is a book written about a human life from the vantage point of an arch demon writing to a junior demon about how to ensure the soul entrusted to him winds up in “the fathers house below”.
Dont let the nature of the book put you off though. It is a darkly funny and very interesting book and one which does what a lot of books fail to do, provoke thought.
A lot of books try to tell you how to think, they may follow a logical argument and base it well, but they do all the thinking for you. This is almost the antithesis of that mentality. You follow the demons arguments and allow yourself to see and supply how things should be.
C.S. Lewis states that he would have liked to have a parallel book from the point of view of an angel, but the person who wrote that book would have to be a better man than he, and that every word would have to smell of Heaven. Im not so sure. I think if we read it as it is intended, with our views based in Christ, we supply the side from the view of heaven. As we read from the view of hell, we find the myriad ways we come closer to God and extend his Kingdom on Earth, and as they are never stated, we need to think about them and process them.
Its a great book and although it could be taken too far, Lewis, in his introduction tries to leave some guidelines for us. You can go too far and believe everything is the work of Demons, or you can go too far and believe everything is pure chance.
I would recommend it to anyone. (well nearly, maybe not little kids, it is partly about demons after all).